


Of Heroes and Heroines.

by Azrael_Doll



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: AU, Peggy Carter as Captain America, Steve Rogers as the Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-18
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-13 13:22:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3383108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azrael_Doll/pseuds/Azrael_Doll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short fic where Peggy Carter becomes Captain America and Steve Rogers becomes the Winter Soldier and Bucky Barnes becomes the grouchy jaded head of the SSR.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Heroes and Heroines.

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this as a short drable thanks to tumblr. I also blame myself for the feels that this hit me with.

When Steve fell from the train, the world seemed to stop. The world searched for the one who had inspired so much goodness and hope. The world cried out for someone to save them.

 Peggy Carter’s heart seemed to break when she heard the news. She called Stark and demanded him to help her. She searched endlessly along the bottom of the cliff, determined that Steve had survived, he had to have. After all, need been an extraordinary man even before the serum had been administered. She braved the cold and the loneliness and searched. They’d just come back from another mission, all they’d found had been Steve’s shield coated in ice, blood and snow. The Colonel had given up trying to convince to do anything else. It took Stark to pull her back terrified at what the grief was doing to her.

 “Peggy, you need to stop. It’s been months. If he is still out there - .” Stark broke off and the unspoken ‘if he’s still alive’ hung in the air between them, “Then he wouldn’t be here anymore.”

 “I can’t Stark. He’s alive. Steve’s alive.” She said, her voice cracking slightly on the words.

 “I know. But he wouldn’t want this Peggy. He’d want you to fight.”

 “Don’t you think I know that?”

 “So fight then.”

 Peggy looked over at the genius who’d stayed by her side searching endlessly for their friend. “Then help me.”

 “How?” He said incredulously.

 “I – There.” Peggy stopped and debating whether she should do this. She wasn’t Steve. The world needed him. She needed him. But the world needed hope more. “When Dr. Erksine used the serum on Steve not all of the vials were destroyed in the attack. There was one still intact. And Howard, I took it.”

 “What do you mean Peggy?”

 “I knew what the serum could do, if in the wrong hands. I made a choice and I am going to stick by it.” Peggy stared at the scientist her gaze hard and determined, “I want you to use it on me.”

 “What?! Peggy no.”

 “Why not? The world needs hope and who else is going to give it?”

 “The risk Peggy!”

 “I don’t care Stark! It’s the right thing to do and you know it.” She looked away, “It’s what Steve would want.”

 “Steve would want you to move on, to live your life.”

 “Fine! Then this is what I want. I’ll do it myself if I have to.”

 “You’re serious.” Howard said, his face pained, “It might not work Peggy.”

 “You’ll make it.”

 

* * *

 

 

It was with a heavy heart that Stark found himself back in Brooklyn; the facility had been closed down since its location had been leaked but all the equipment was still there. He moved through the quiet storefront and through the secret entrance and down into the laboratory. The equipment had cover sheets over them and a slight layer of dust; he moved over and stripped the sheets off, coughing slightly as the dust moved. Howard checked over everything with grim determination.

 “Will it work?” A voice rang out from the top of the stairs startling him.

 Peggy was standing there, her posture firm and mask in place. “I need to run some tests, some of the wiring might need fixing, but yes.”

 “Good.” She said before turning to leave.

 “Where are you going?” He called after her.

 “To get what we need. I’ll be back in a couple days. Be ready.”

 “Be ready! She says, I’m to get this place running on my own and then use a highly experimental drug on her.” Stark said glancing around and sighing, “Well I better get started. Great, I’m talking to myself.” Shaking his head the genius got to work.

 He’d just finished running tests when Peggy came back, she was as unruffled as always but there was a bruise on her face. She didn’t tell him where she’d been.

 “I need to make sure you’re in good enough condition.”

 “I don’t have any broken bones or anything else, just some bruises.” She said.

 “Still,” Stark said moving over to her, “When did you last eat or drink?”

 Peggy frowned, “It was over a day ago.”

 “Good.” He paused whilst checking her eye movements, “Well, it’s not but you shouldn’t eat beforehand for at least 12 hours. It’s not good that you haven’t eaten anything. The first thing we’re doing after this insane plan that you got me to agree to is getting something to eat.”

 “Why Howard, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were asking me out on a date.”

 Howard coughed, “No. But you are my friend.” He said before abruptly moving away, “You have the serum?”

 Peggy nodded and handed it to him. “Do I need to do anything in particular?”

 “Strip.” Howard said absentmindedly whilst looking at the vial, “What I could do with this.” He murmured.

 “I beg your pardon.”

 “Oh sorry,” He said looking up. “You need to undress for the injections. I would promise not to look, but where’d be the fun in that.”

 “Really Stark, the fact that anyone finds you attractive astounds me.” Peggy commented dryly, unbuttoning her blouse.

 “And yet women fall at my feet.”

 “One of these days those habits of yours are going to get you into trouble.”

 “The best kind are trouble.” He retorted and filled up a syringe with penicillin. Turning he told Peggy to get in the machine and he injected the drug in her arm before strapping her down.

 “You can always say to stop, you know. You don’t have to do this.” Howard almost begged.

 “Yes, I do. Whatever happens, don’t stop.” Peggy ordered, “No matter what.” Before quietly saying to him, “And Howard, thank you.”

 “Sure thing Carter.” He said as he closed the capsule and hooked up the serum to it.

 “God I hope this works.” He muttered to himself and started the process. The surging sound of electricity met him and Peggy screamed and it seemed to last an age. His finger itched to stop it to turn it off, but he couldn’t bring himself to destroy Peggy’s hopes. After what felt like an eternity it stopped and cautiously he called out Carter’s name. He carefully walked over to the capsule and opened it. Inside was Carter; she was alive. She was slightly taller and more muscled but there was nowhere near the difference there had been for Steve. But then again, Peggy was in much better health than Steve ever was before the serum.

 “It worked.” He breathed in elation.

 Peggy groaned and blinking slightly, “God. That was awful.”

 Stark hurriedly undid the straps tying the woman down. “How do you feel?”

 “Stronger. Everything feels clearer.” She glanced around, “No wonder Steve seemed dazed when he first got out of the capsule.” She moved to get out of the machine, swaying slightly Howard caught her by the arm. Peggy nodded towards her clothes, “Pass me those would you.”

 Stark nodded and did as she asked, they were slightly tight on her. “You need new clothes and then we need food.”

 “Seriously Stark? We just made a process that only worked once before work. Illegally I might add and you’re worried about clothes and food?”

 “Yes. It’s amazing and I will bask in my glory later. Right now we need to get you sorted.”

 Peggy found the howling commandos sat in the wreckage of the bar they’d come to call their own. The memories of ghosts dancing around them, fuelled by the alcohol they’d drank. It was midday when Peggy came to see them dressed up in combat gear and told them to get off their sorry asses. It was her who dragged them kicking and screaming out of their depression and onto the front lines. Someone needed to stop the red skull and by god was she going to do it. It was where they all met, Stark and the Colonel included when the war had ended, in the shell of the bar as they toasted to peace and Steve and Peggy. Stark never gave up searching for Steve or for the ship had gone down with Peggy inside.

 Bucky bitterly left the army to head the SSR after the war ended. Determined to make a difference but needing to be away from the front lines where he’d lost two of the people he cared about most. He steadfastly stood by Stark throughout the issues that he faced after the war. Bucky refused to believe that his friend had betrayed them all. He grouched and groaned his way through the world with a jaded look in his eyes. Half of his staff were women who’d served in the army that the world didn’t know what to do with and he refused to adhere to the sexist views that some still clung too after Peggy. After Captain America was a woman. He chased down leads and he caught criminals. He tangled with the Leviathan and came out swinging. Stark asked him for his help in creating a shield for the world. Bucky made it his life’s work. And he waited for his friends to come home. It took 70 years for one of them to find their way back and Bucky’s mind was no longer what it was. But Carter was there and hope was back.

 Peggy had been trying to figure out her new place in the world. A world so much more liberal than the one she left. Was she a solider, an agent? A woman lost in time. She fought Fury and his paranoid ways. But who was she to say if he was wrong. Natasha she liked, she gave Peggy hope that there was a way to exist with the different views crowding inside of her. Natasha was good at what she did but she didn’t let it take over. Sam helped; he knew the horror of war and didn’t let it rule him. He treated her as an equal, as a friend. Not many did that anymore.

 And when Fury turned up at Peggy’s apartment she tried to trust again and when he was shot in front of her and the woman that lived down the hall from her; Angie burst into her apartment and checked the place before heading to Fury. She expected it. She chased after the shooter, losing him on the rooftops when he through her shield back at her. All she knew was that he had a metal arm and blonde hair. Angie as it turned out was Bucky’s niece; it took her back, seeing a part of Bucky in her mannerisms.

 It was days later, when she was on the run when the Winter Soldier as Natasha had named him came after them again. He chose Natasha as the higher threat and after dealing with the others Peggy chased after them. Desperate to make it to Natasha in time, the thought of losing someone else, was almost too much. She lost Steve and then woke to find most of her friends dead and others worse.

 She fought and in the struggle the mask came off. “Steve,” She gasped.

 And the Winter Soldier stared at her in confusion, “Who the hell is Steve?” He asked moving towards her before Natasha and Sam chased him away.

 They stormed S.H.I.E.L.D together, destroying what Bucky had made in memory of Steve and herself. She couldn’t let the thought rule her. And she couldn’t fight Steve, not after everything else that happened. Peggy woke up on the bank of the river coughing up water. The wreckage before her and her heart broke again over everything that had happened and she promised herself then and there that she would get Steve back.

 The Winter Soldier didn’t know why he’d saved the woman back there, something about her called to him. Steve, she called him. Everything was so fractured in his mind. He didn’t know what anything meant anymore. At times he wasn’t sure where he was. At some points, he was in an operating room, other times all he remembered was the cold and darkness. He clenched his metal arm into a fist and stared down at it. Memories swam to the surface fighting against women in an enclosed room in Russian; a girl with red hair and ballet shoes. Pain shot through his head as the disjoined images of a car crash that resulted in a man and woman’s death shot through his mind. They’d disabled the car. He’d disabled the car. Finally one memory came back to him faintly that wasn’t coated in death and gore. He was at a bar and drinking with army friends, a man was there. Bucky. And a woman, the woman from the bridge; Peggy. The Winter Soldier shook his head, blond hair shaking wildly. What was the truth? He didn’t know. But he ran and hid. Ran from HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D and hid from the world. He stole clothes and covered his arm and hair. He blended in. The Winter Soldier needed answers, but where could he go? He saw the advertisement one day for the exhibition. Not know what else to do he went. What he saw there shattered his world. And Steve didn’t know what to do. How to reconcile the life he had, with the one he remembered.


End file.
